Getting Organized For E3 2004
By Johnn Five May 5, 2004
The BioWare offices are buzzing these days as we rev our engines up for what looks to be our best Electronic Entertainment Expo yet. We've been working closely with Microsoft Game Studios to prepare, and we're pretty juiced about demoing the beautiful Jade Empire action RPG on the Xbox floor to excited E3 attendees. We'll have demonstration kiosks set up at the BioWare and Microsoft Game Studios booths, and BioWarians will be on hand to answer questions and provide exciting walk-throughs.
What exactly is involved in putting together a top notch E3 demonstration and trade show exhibit, you ask? Read on to get an insider's look into BioWare's trade show planning and organization process.
Demo Builds
Step one is building a cool demonstration for E3 attendees to play at the BioWare and Microsoft Game Studios booths. While the Jade Empire team produces new game builds daily for ongoing testing and review, a special build is required for E3 that contains a detailed walk-through of the game. Once this build is good to go it's sent to the third floor for usability testing.
Usability Testing
This is a very important part of our development process--for E3 and the game as a whole. Not only do we get to serve coffee and pickles to public volunteers who haven't seen Jade Empire before, but we get to lock them in a small booth, jam a game controller in their hands, and make them play video games! Oh, the agony!
We can watch our usability testers work their way through the demo via 1-way mirrors. We gauge their reactions and interactions to challenge any design assumptions we've made about the game and its playability. The testers, just like E3 attendees, will only have a short time with the game, so we need to help them learn it fast. This is where building a cool tutorial becomes important, and the usability testers are key in letting us know whether our tutorial is clear, enjoyable, and effective.
Based on usability testing feedback, we'll feverishly make changes before the E3 deadline to ensure everyone enjoys the most positive experience of our demo at the expo as possible.
Media Training
Simultaneous with the usability testing, the 12 BioWarians who'll be demoing the game at E3 must undergo a rigorous media training program. Every day for two weeks they work through the demo in teams, mastering the numerous fighting and magic styles in the game and learning everything they can about Jade Empire so they can deliver fast and accurate answers.
During the training, each employee is put in the hot seat where team members gleefully fire tough questions at them. Employees are filmed so they can review their performance afterwards and to help them fill out their list of who'll be getting coal in their stocking at Christmas. The final, nerve-wracking test is to perform a live demo before our joint-CEOs, Ray and Greg. If they're not satisfied, Greg gives the grim nod to open up the steel doors beneath the employee's feet, dumping them into a pool of starving sharks, alligators, and electric eels. This part is not filmed, of course.
The Q&A and camera training helps everyone feel comfortable in high pressure situations because the E3 showroom floor can get pretty hairy, and our goal is to provide booth visitors with the best demonstration and most accurate information possible amidst the bustling crowds, flashing lights, and electric atmosphere that makes the expo so exciting.
Miscellaneous Preparation
We have to ship all the posters, booth materials, and demo equipment ahead of time so that it will be there when we arrive in LA for the show. This requires quite a bit of organization and preparation. We'll be giving away free posters at our booth, and if they don't arrive in time we'd be stuck giving out Post-It Notes with Ray's best attempts at drawing Wu's Storm Dragon fighting style. Exactly--best hope those posters arrive safe and sound!
Stay Tuned
This is but a taste of our E3 coverage. We're ready for this year's E3 and can't wait for it to start. As the expo unfolds, we'll be posting more articles and photos. There'll be tons of information released at our site and others about Jade Empire. So stay tuned!
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